



4 o 

-mm \'^^ 




















•; o 




<r. 






.^ 







PLEA 



FOR THE 



AMERICAN COLONIZATION SOCIETY 



A SERMON, 



PREACHED IN 



ST. aEORGS'S CHURCH, NEW-TORK, 






^ / ON SUNDAY, JULY 9, 1826. 



BY THE REV. JAMES MILNOR, D.D. 

RECTOR OF SAID CHURCH. 



NEW- YORK : 

./OHN P. HAVEN, 182 BROADWAY. 
1826. 



^^. 






Sleiglit iS; Tucker, i'rinters, Jamaica. 



5^ 



c5 



TO THE 



PRESIDENT, VICE-PRESIDENTS, 

AND 

BOARD OF MANAGERS, 

OF THE 

AMERICAN SOCIETY FOR COLONIZING THE FREE 

PEOPLE OF COLOUR OF THE UNITED STATES, 
THIS laUiaBliIl EFFORT 

TO PROMOTE 

THE PATRIOTIC, BENEVOLENT, AND CHRISTIAN 
ENTERPRIZE, 

)X WHICH THEY ARE ENGACEU, 

IS MOST RESPECTFULLY INSCRIBED BY 



PLEA 



Etneticatn ^olontiatCon S^otUtyt* 



Psalm lxviii. 31 — last clause. 
'• ETHIOPIA SHALL SOON STRETCH OUT HER HANDS UNTO GOD." 

This is one of those cheering promises, the 
fulfilment of which is to usher in the latter day- 
glory of the church: when the bringing in of the 
fulness of the Gentiles, and the conversion and 
restoration of the Jews, will complete Messiah's 
conquests ; and all the kingdoms of this world 
will become the kingdoms of our Lord and of 
his Christ. Yes, Africa, poor, degraded, injured 
Africa, is to have conveyed to her utmost borders 
the knowledge of the true God, and of his bless- 
ed Word, and of the glorious Saviour it reveals, 
and of the heavenly felicity that awaits those 
who believe in Him. And this, like the other 
gracious promises of Jehovah, is to be accom- 
plished by human instrumentalities, rendered 



6 PLEA FOR THE AMERICAN 

effectual by the grace of the Spirit, and the di- 
rection of providential events, to. the production 
of the designed result. The redemption of this 
extensive region of our earth from the midnight 
darkness of Paganism, and the illumination of 
its untutored millions with the light of truth, are 
already begun. We adore the goodness of that 
God v^'ho has brought into activity so much of 
Christian benevolence, as we have already seen 
exerted in the commencement and most encou- 
raging progress of this good work. The prac- 
ticability of its ultimate full achievement is 
opened with undoubted clearness to the eye of 
Christian faith. They who would have denied 
even the declaration of God himself, that he has 
made of one blood all the nations of the earth, 
are compelled, by the developments of a few 
years past, to acknowledge that Ethiopia's swar- 
thy sons are rational beings bke themselves ; 
awfully ingulphed, it is true, in ignorance and 
sin, but endowed with intellects capable of re- 
ceiving, with interest and affection, God's mes- 
sage of mercy to our fallen world, and of appre- 
ciating and seeking the improvements of learn- 
ing and civilization. It was the success which 
had followed the pious exertions of the friends 
of Christ in Great Britain, more especially on 
the western coast of Africa, that led the same 



COLONIZATION SOCIETY. 



class in our favoured country, to feel a wish to 
participate in so laudable an enterprize. If a 
consciousness of having shared in the atrocities 
of an abominable traffic in human flesh, and of 
Africa's claim to some remuneration for the 
wrongs she had endured in the sufferings of her 
children, stimulated an awakened British public 
to measures of redress, it would have been 
strange if the principles of their benign religion 
had not roused Christians in America to similar 
exertions. With no design to palliate the cruel- 
ties of slavery, or to admit the right of any hu- 
man being to hold his fellow-man in bondage, it 
is honourable to our brethren in the South, on 
whom the evil has been entailed, that among 
themselves should have originated the plan 
which I have undertaken to recommend at this 
time to your patronage and support ; and, if mo- 
tives of self-interest have combined in its pro- 
secution, and daily bring to its furtherance the 
aid of many whom more exalted considerations 
would fail to influence, it is only a proof of the 
variety of methods by which God, in his all-wise 
providence, is pleased to accomplish his merciful 
designs, and of the manner in which He can 
bring into requisition, for this purpose, even the 
frailties and infirmities of men. In the present 
instance, indeed, what, at the first glance, might 



8 PLEA FOR THE AMERICAN 

appear to be a blameable principle of selfishness; 
is almost divested of that character by the obvi- 
ous connection of African colonization with the 
general advancement of human happiness, no 
less than its tendency to remove, or lessen, ac- 
knowledged evils among ourselves; and espe- 
cially in those States where slavery unhappily 
continues to exist. Although the Christian mind 
dwells with delight on the best results of this 
enterprize, in its ultimate diffusion, throughout 
Africa, of the benefits of social improvement 
and the light of the Gospel of Jesus Christ ; and 
is therefore animated with a holy zeal in its sup- 
port from its bearings on the eternal destinies of 
millions of his fellow-men, it is not deemed im- 
proper, even in this place, to advert to consi- 
derations which unavoidably mingle their influ- 
ence with this more elevated and sublime in- 
ducement. I propose, therefore, to state briefly 
the plan of the American Colonization Society, 
and then present to you the reasons why I believe 
it to be deserving of the patronage of every 
Patriot, Philanthropist, and Christian in our 
country. 

This Institution was established at the city of 
Washington, a few years since, with the declared 
design of removing to the coast of Africa, with 
their own consent, such people of colour within 



COLONIZATION SOCIETY. 9 

the United States as were then free, and such 
others, as the humanity of individuals and the 
laws of the different States should thereafter 
liberate. In its formation there were associ- 
ated many of the most distinguished citizens of 
our country, and the measures pursued for the 
effectuating of the Society's objects have been 
marked by that wisdom and prudence, united 
with earnestness and zeal, which might have 
been expected from the character of its found- 
ers. Agents were sent to Africa to ascertain 
how far it might be practicable to obtain by 
purchase from the proprietors of the soil a 
competent grant of land for the reception of a 
Colony, to ascertain what region, most accessi- 
ble to the United States, best adapted to pur- 
poses of commerce and other objects of in- 
terest to the Colonists, and especially most 
favourable to health, could be procured; and 
the result of all the information collected by 
these intelligent men was, that the facilities 
were great, the difficulties comparatively few. 
It would be tedious and out of place here to 
narrate, in detail, the various circumstances of 
discouragement and hope, which marked the 
earlier transactions of the Society in the trans- 
portation and settlement of the first objects of 
its beneficence. 

9 



10 PLEA FOR THE AMERICAN 

The calamities of sickness and of death 
overtook many a benevolent agent of the Insti- 
tution, and not a few of the first Colonists fell 
victims to a tropical and insalubrious climate. 
Deceptions were practised to induce u prefer- 
ence for situations, which, on trial, were found 
unsuitable ; and, as will ever occur in the be- 
ginning of attempts of this kind, very important 
lessons were learnt at the expense of great 
sacrifices, and of some very valuable lives. But 
a location has been at length found, which has 
fully answered every reasonable expectation. 
The cession of a tract of country in a situation 
peculiarly healthy has been obtained ; a consi- 
derable town built; numerous free descendants 
of Africa, conveyed there by this Society, have 
become its inhabitants; a civil government has 
been established ; order, tranquility, good mo- 
rals, and religion generally prevail ; and very 
recent accounts from the presiding officer of 
the settlement, give the most pleasing evidences 
of the flourishing and happy state of the Ameri- 
can Colony of Liberia. In regard to the ques- 
tion of the salubrity of Africa to her American 
descendants, it has been now satisfactorily de- 
termined by experiment. — They have as much 
liealth, say the latest accounts, and as lar^e a. 



COLONIZATION SOCIETY. 11 

share of animation as they ever possessed in 
America. The government and laws, too, are 
well supported and executed ; agriculture and 
the mechanic arts are industriously and success- 
fully pursued ; a valuable accession of territory 
has been made during the past year ; the means 
of subsistence are abundant ; the dwellings neat 
and comfortable ; several churches have been 
erected ; and the advantages of literary and 
mental improvement are considerable and in- 
creasing. The religious character of the Colo- 
nists is sustained by a scrupulous observance 
of the Sabbath, the maintenance of Sunday 
Schools, and a general attendance upon public 
worship ; and, with few exceptions, the state of 
morals is such as might well compare with most 
of the towns and cities of the civilized coun- 
tries of Europe or America. Now the simple 
question for our consideration is, whether a So- 
ciety, which, in a very short time, has achieved 
so much, should be supported in its efforts by 
the countenance and contributions of the com- 
munity at large. From those who are indiffer- 
ent to the interests of that country in which 
they are protected in the enjoyment of the im- 
portant blessings of civil and religious liberty, 
from those who have no detestation of oppres- 
sion, no rearard to human rights, no love to their 



12 PLEA FOR THE AMERICAN 

fellow men, and from those who are not alive to 
the inconceivable blessings attending the diffu- 
sion of the Gospel of Jesus Christ, perhaps the 
Soc eiy, whose claims I advocate, have little to 
expect ; but I repeat with confidence, that to the 
understanding and the heart of the Patriot, the 
Philanthropist, the Christian, they appeal with 
a force of persuasion that is irresistible. It is 
to the view of each of these classes I would 
present them on the present occasion, with a 
most affectionate hope of a favourable im- 
pression in regard to the cause of Colonization, 
and of a present liberal contribution to the 
funds of the benevolent Institution to whose 
management it has been confided. 

I. I say, then. To the PATRIOT, to the man 
who loves his country, and is ready to give his 
heart and hand to every effort calculated to ad- 
vance her prosperity, the Colonization of the 
free people of colour commetids itself to your 
approbation and support, because it will pro- 
mote the public good. We have among us an 
immense population of the descendants of Af- 
rica. A part of them still endure the galling 
chains of slavery. Under the influence of favour- 
ing circumstances, in some of the States their 
fetters have been wholly, in others partially, 
broken ; and their subjects in some measure 



COLONIZATION SOCIETY. 13 

restored to the enjoyment of the rights of free- 
men. A race of human bemgs is thus found 
among us, who, from their degraded origin, 
their complexion, their inferior means of in- 
struction, and, in some States, their entire want 
of education, their exclusion in most from the 
elective franchise, and from many of the more 
elevated functions of ordinary life, constitute a 
separate class, marked by many features of de- 
cided inferiority in public estimation, and, in 
the common course of things, doomed perhaps 
to occupy for ever this degraded place. It need 
not be asked in those States where slavery still 
subsists, whether it be the course which policy 
dictates to retain among them a class of persons 
exasperated with a recolhiction of their own 
wrongs, and the constant beholders of the toils 
and sufferings of their enslaved brethren ; for 
it is believed they are ready to answer promptly 
and unanimously in the negative. The most 
alarming interruptions of the public peace, con- 
sequences, at the very possibility of which hu- 
manity shudders, may follow the increase of 
the free people of colour in the slave States. 
But are those parts of our country where 
slavery has happily been abolished, or but par- 
tially prevails, uninterested in measures which 
may lessen the increase of such a population 



14 PLEA FOR THE AMERICAN 



among themselves? Assuredly, if not vitally 
so, they are greatly, interested in any plan, 
which, in consonance with justice and humanity, 
and no other should be advocated, will prevent 
the accumulation of a people constantly fretting 
under a sense of degradation for which there 
seems no remedy, a denial of political rights to 
which they have no prospect of arriving, an ex- 
clusion from associations to which they can 
never look for an admittance ; and, in respect 
to a large portion, addicted to habits of life 
alike destructive of social order, and of public 
and private virtue. Let the contemplation, for 
example, rest upon the city in which we dwell. 
Who does not perceive in the records of our 
courts, and in his daily walks, abundant proofs 
of the evils of an increased coloured popula- 
tion^ Far be it from your speaker's intention to 
suppose this class naturally worse than others. 
They are the heirs only of the common depra- 
vity of our nature. But the situations from 
which they have emerged, the uninformed state 
of their minds, early addiction to intemperance 
and other vices, and the low station they un- 
avoidably occupy in the scale of society, expose 
them more to the influence of temptation, and 
make them easier victims of the grand enemy 
of man. We rejoice to acknowledge many 



COLONIZATION SOCIETY. 15 

honourable exceptions, chiefly under the in- 
fluence of sanctified impressions of religious 
truth, which sometimes arise to relieve this 
dark and dreary picture. We rejoice that 
some, reared under the happy influence of the 
Sunday Schools which you support, now rank 
in our community among the friends of religion 
and good morals ; and that several have been 
enabled, under the auspices of the Colonization 
Society, to communicate the benefits conferred 
by you, to their brethren on the coast of Africa. 
But adverting to the free coloured people in a 
mass, and contemplating the probable very rapid 
increase of their number, it is not necessary I 
should further urge this argument. Does not 
every friend to the order, and peace, and happi- 
ness of the community clearly see, that the 
public good is intimately connected with any 
plan, which, while it betters the condition of 
this class of people, will avert from the other 
classes in the community the evils which its in- 
crease cannot fail to induce ] But I should feel 
myself unworthy of the place I fill, were I to re- 
commend any measure for that purpose, which 
foreboded ill to that unhappy race, whose wrongs 
have excited the liveliest sensibilities of my 
heart from my days of childhood, and to whose 
interests as much of my time and labour as 



16 PLEA FOR THE AMERICAiN 



other indispensable duties would permit, were 
for many years of my life assiduously and cheer- 
fully devoted. I commend, therefore, the cause 
of African Colonization to the patronage 

II. Of the PHILANTHROPIST, because it 
is an undertaking of undoubted benevolence. 

That it is calculated to promote the security, 
and order, and happiness of the community, it 
is hoped is already seen ; and that stamps upon^it 
the character of benevolence, if, in our anxie- 
ties for ourselves, we have not disregarded the 
interests of others. That we have not done so. 
I apprehend both the declared object of the So- 
ciety, and its public acts, fully prove. Is it pro- 
posed to visit upon the descendants of Africa 
evils assimilated to those inflicted on their 
abused ancestors I As the latter were torn by 
force from the soil that gave them, birth, is it con- 
templated, with like violence, to transport the 
former back to the regions of barbarism ^ Has 
any enemy of liberty been hardy enough to pro- 
pose a scheme by which the slave, to whom the 
benevolence of the laws, or of his master, has 
given at least partial freedom, should be thrown 
friendless and deserted upon the shores of a 
people, still disposed to trade in human blood, 
and by whose hands he might be again made 
the victim of a cruel oppressor t O no ! It ig 



COLONIZATION SOCIETY. 17 



among their American brethren we would place 
them, under the dominion of law, the influence 
of religion, the power of good example, the 
sympathies of charity, the protection of a stable 
government. We would remove them from a 
scene of mortifying comparison, raise them to 
the proper dignity of their nature, invest them 
with the full rights of freemen, supply them with 
the means of being happy in this life, and pre- 
pare them to be for ever happy in that which is 
to come. " To the lasting honour of the Ameri- 
can Colonization Society," says a recent most 
interesting letter, from its excellent Agent in 
Liberia, " it has founded a new empire on the 
continent of Africa, of which the basis is Chris- 
tianity, intelligence, and rational liberty, has 
conducted it happily through the perilous season 
of its inception and early growth, and has seen 
Its members in the full possession of the means 
of acquiring the comforts of life, and of sus- 
taining, against any anticipated oppression, the 
stand to which 'it has advanced." I wish time 
permitted my reading to you the whole of a let- 
ter so honourable to its esteemed author. Its 
details would, I think, convince the most skepti- 
cal of the just grounds on which he concludes, 
that " as far as the actual state and prospects of 
the colonial establishment of Liberia can effect 

8 



18 PLKA FOR THE AMERICAN 



the great interests for which the Society labours, 
all the discouragements occasioned at the com- 
mencement by the afliictive dispensations of 
Providence, are now reversed, and its language 
authorises and inspires the liveliest sentiments of 
gratitude and joy." Your preacher feels himself 
warranted by the undoubted evidence of facts, 
to say, that, whether the health of the colony 
be considered, or its civil state, or the means it 
affords of securing an adequate support, and 
even acquiring property, or its progress in the 
rearing of public and private buildings, or its 
schools of instruction, or its capacity of defence, 
or the religious and moral character of its inha- 
bitants, there can be little doubt that in reference 
to the emigrants themselves it is a work of real 
benevolence to promote, by every practicable 
mean, the removal, with their own consent, of 
our coloured population to the land of their fa- 
thers. 

In another view the objects of this Institution 
are entitled to the patronage of the Philanthro- 
pist. They are intimately connected with, and 
highly promotive of the cause of emancipation. 
Thanks be to God, slavery in our happy country 
has few direct advocates. Even in those States 
where its evils seem to be most inveterately 
rooted, it is spoken of as an irremoveable cala- 



COLONIZATION SOCIETY. 19 

mity, rather than defended on the score of right. 
No doubt some believe the possibility of its re- 
moval as among the dreams of enthusiasm. But 
even in the slave States this natural prejudice is 
giving way ; and no incident has ever occurred 
to hasten its extinction so much as the formation 
and successful progress of the Colonization 
scheme. Unveil to the view of many a pious or 
humane slaveholder, whose ancestor has thrown 
upon him an incumbrance which imbitters his 
hours of reflection, and hinders his prayers, 
the prospect of improving the condition of his 
slave by his emancipation : take from his mind 
the apprehension, that such an apparent benefit 
is not likely to prove a real injury, by the poverty, 
and vice, and misery to which his slave will be 
consigned on becoming free : satisfy him that in 
the gift of freedom he is not about to confer on 
a human being, for whom he feels a deep solici- 
tude, a curse rather than a blessing : let him 
know that an asylum is ready, where such ma- 
terials of happiness are provided as have been 
described, and that the means of his removal 
thither are at hand ; and you furnish most pow- 
erful inducements to him to loose the fetters of 
his bondman, and to send him, perhaps with 
something more than his blessing and his pray- 
ers, to the country of his ancestors. In other 



20 PLEA FOR THE AMERICAN 

insiaaces policy and self-security, in the absence 
of oetter motives, will lead to a similar course ; 
and thus, in the only safe way, will be accom- 
plished the gradual abolition of slavery through- 
out our land. That mortifying stain on the fair 
face of a republic boasting the freest civil insti- 
tutions in the world, will be washed away, and the 
Philanthropist be enabled to point to one fa- 
voured country whose political escutcheon ex- 
hibits not a single blot. 

There is still another point of light in which 
the subject commends itself to the regards of the 
philanthropic heart. I allude to the hindrances 
which colonial establishments on the coast of 
Africa will interpose to the prosecution of the 
Slave-trade. Since the measures adopted by 
several European governments, and by our own, 
for the suppression of this infamous traffic, cu- 
pidity seems to have increased the ardour of its 
pursuit by lawless individuals. " The extent 
and atrocity of the slave-trade," says the last 
annual report of the Colonization Society, " re- 
mains, it is believed, undiminished, and in more 
than one instance during the past year has the 
flag of our country been seen to wave over ves- 
sels employed, beyond doubt, in this traffic. 
Numerous facts might be adduced in proof that 
American citizens still participate in the crimes 



COLONIZATION SOCIETY. 21 

and gains of this trade, which we can hardly 
hope will be exterminated, until the whole Chris- 
tian world becomes so sensible of its iniquity, as 
unanimously to denounce it as an intolerable 
oftence, to which no flag shall give protection." 
Melancholy as is the fact here stated, and cor- 
rect as is the persuasion of the authors of the 
report, of the indispensable necessity for a uni- 
ted and vigorous co-operation of all nations in 
the suppression of this unnatural and cruel com- 
merce ; yet are we thankful that its operations 
have already been impeded by the moral influ- 
ence exerted by the American Colonists on the 
minds of the Natives, by the facilities which the 
settlement of Monrovia afibrds to the armed ves- 
sels employed by government in the capture of 
those engaged in this illicit trade, and by the 
happy eflfects of that kind treatment and literary 
and religious culture afforded by our colony to 
the recaptured sons of Africa. How delightful 
lo the feeling bosom is this last suggestion ! 
What pleasing auguries fill the mind, when it is 
not indulged as a matter of benevolent specula- 
tion, but as a known historical fact, that a part of 
the sable population of Liberia is already com- 
posed of individuals rescued from the miseries 
of the Middle Passage by the humane exertions 
of our navy ; and that, instead of being con- 



22 PLEA FOR THE AMERICAN 



signed to the merciless oppression of tyrannical 
masters in a foreign land, they now rejoice in 
having been returned to their beloved homes, 
laden with the fruits of that moral and religious 
improvement, which the charity of our govern- 
ment, and of the friends of Colonization has 
provided for them in the schools established 
there for their instruction ! May not the most 
important results flow from these measures, in 
the civilization and improvement of Africa, and 
in the implantation of better principles in her 
rulers than those which have made them the 
guilty partakers with white men in the enormi- 
ties of the slave-trade 1 May we not hope for 
an internal co-operation in its extermination, 
which will complete the desired work more spee- 
dily than can ever be done by a mere external 
array of arms t O, could the heart of the more 
docile savage be taught those lessons of mercy, 
which utterly fail in making the least impression 
on the brutal trader in human flesh, who tempts 
him by money remorselessly to sell his fellow- 
man, the wretch would be driven to some other 
means of gratifying his lust of gain. A legiti- 
mate commerce in the productions of the earth, 
and of the mechanic arts, would supersede a 
traffic disgraceful to our species, and one of the 
many prolific sources of human misery be ba- 
nished from our world. 



COLONIZATION SOCIETY. 



23 



But I am aware, beloved brethren, that the 
interest of my subject has detained me too long 
upon considerations which may to some present 
more of a secular aspect than is ordinarily suita- 
ble to this sacred place. It is not often I thus 
intrude ; and I feel the less occasion for apology, 
from the persuasion that discerning minds will 
easily perceive almost every suggestion which I 
have made to have an intimate connection with 
the exalted duties of practical religion. The true 
Christian is a lover of his country, and of man- 
kind. That he has sustained in all their lustre 
the latter characters will not impair his title to 
the former. Thar, in connection with the higher 
obligations of religious duty, he has well per- 
formed the duty of a citizen, and been the bene- 
factor of his fellow-men, if the governing motives 
of his conduct have been in accordance with the 
Gospel of Christ, may enhance (they never can 
diminish) the bright remunerations of eternity. 
But still the most powerful argument in support 
of the plan of African Colonization is its favoura- 
ble bearings on the advancement of the interests 
of Christianity. 

After having thus urged the support of the 
Colonization Society upon the Patriot, and the 
Philanthropist, I feel no hesitation in commend- 
ing it, with equal confidence, 



24 PLEA FOR THE AMERICAN 



III. To the regards of the CHRISTIAN, be- 
cause, under the divine blessing, it will greatly 
extend the kingdom of Christ. It has been 
principally through the establishments of the 
British Government in Africa, that some rays 
of light have cheered the midnight gloom in 
which that populous Quarter of the Globe has 
been so long enveloped. The most important 
scene of Missionary labour has been Sierra 
Leone, and various towns emanating from that 
colony on the Western Coast. Under the 
auspices of the Church Missionary Society, 
thousands of the sable inhabitants of Africa 
have already embraced, and are now enjoying 
the comforts of our blessed religion. The 
prophecy of our text is thus in part fulfilled ; 
and it seems to be an honour reserved to our 
beloved country to lead on the measures which 
are to result in its complete accomplishment. 
When the Christian is satisfied that the plan of 
God contemplates, and his promises assure, the 
ultimate universal prevalence of the religion of 
Christ, can he feel uninterested in events that 
seem likely to further that plan, or to direct the 
eye of faith to the fulfilment of those promises? 
Now is not the mercy of God co-extensive with 
the habitable globe ? Is not his call to all the 
ends of the earth to look unto Christ that thev 



COLONIZATION SOCIETY. 25 

may be saved \ Do not the promises of God 
assure to his Son the heatlien for his inherit- 
ance, and the uttermost parts of the earth for his 
possession ^ In reference to the region, to which 
we have now the opportunity of carrying the 
Saviour's name, is it not the promise of our 
text, that, involved as all but a very small por- 
tion of her people are in the worship of false 
deities, " Ethiopia shall soon stretch out her 
hands unto God f And, O brethren, does she 
not present a spectacle of moral wretchedness 
sufficient to animate us to step forth to her re- 
lief! Your intelligence would anticipate any 
portraiture I could present of the darkness, and 
ignorance, and debasement of her unconverted 
tribes, contrasted with the characters of a few 
of her more favoured inhabitants, to whom 
Christian beneficence has carried the inestima- 
ble treasures of revelation, and with them a mea- 
sure of the refinements of civilized life. The 
description of the one would answer, in all its 
hateful lineaments, to that given by the Apostle 
of the Gentiles of the Heathen of his own 
times ; the other to that of the same persons, 
after being "washed, and sanctified, and justi- 
fied in the name of the Lord Jesus, and by the 
Spirit of our God." 



26 PLEA FOR THE AMERICAN 

■ ' ■ ■ ' ' — 

It would be vain to conceal the fact, that much 
time may be required, and that great difficulties 
will attend the efforts of Christians in the con- 
duct and completion of the great work of Af- 
rica's regeneration. But what great work was 
ever unattended with difficulties 1 With the ex- 
traordinary endowments of the Holy Ghost, 
with the gift of tongues, and with the power of 
working miracles, did no impedimenta obstruct 
the missionary labours of the Apostles and 
other early heralds of the Cross 1 Read the ac- 
count St. Paul gives of his own personal trials 
and discouragements ; read the well authen- 
ticated narratives of the labourers who sue 
ceeded him ; look into the Book of Martyrs, 
and see the multitudes " who counted not their 
lives dear unto them," but were willing to lay 
them down in testimony of the truth ; thus ma- 
king their blood the seed of the church of the 
Redeemer, and adding to the number of their 
converts by the Christian heroism of their 
deaths. Look at the unpromising commence- 
ment of many of the religious enterprizes of 
our own times. Who would have believed that 
the little phalanx of the United Brethren would 
have achieved so much for the cause of Christ 
as their labours among the Heathen, in every 
quarter of the globe, have effected'? What a 



COLONIZATION SOCIETY. 27 

Stable foundation for future missionary labour 
lias been laid by the numerous translations of 
the Scriptures into the languages of the East, 
which the unwearied application of Carey, 
Marshman, and Ward have, within a few years, 
with such an apparent paucity of means, and in 
the face of countless impediments, produced 1 
What was the British and Foreign Bible So- 
ciety, what was the Church Missionary Society 
of England, twenty years ago I And what are 
they now l What was England itself some cen- 
turies since but a land of Pagans I And what 
are her Christian people now doing, I might 
rather ask, what are they not doing, for the 
evangelizing of the world ^ Our encouragement 
is that Jesus, whose name this Society will be 
the means of carrying into the wilds of Africa, 
*'must increase." The Gentile nations are 
given to him by Covenant for a possession. 
Whatever obstacles may obstruct the Divine 
purpose of mercy to their deluded inhabitants, 
"their riches must be brought to fill up, and 
enhance the splendours of his reign, when, in 
the plenitude of his authority, as King of Zion, 
he shall inherit all nations." I invite you then. 
Christian Brethren, to engage in this grand 
concern, and become workers together with 
God in bringing these your distant fellow-men 



28 PLEA FOR THE AMERICAN 

to the obedience of faith. The beginnings are 
small ; the progress may be slow ; but the little 
cloud shall be seen, if not rapidly, gradually 
enlarging, until it burst on the deserts of Africa 
in refreshing showers of mercy, and its barren 
wildernesses bud and blossom as the rose. Our 
hearts have exulted at the sight, in the Islands 
of the Pacific, of nations born in a day. The 
same wonder-working God, who has, by feeble 
human instruments, caused the savages of those 
regions indignantly to burn their wooden gods, 
led them to abandon the bloody rites of a most 
horrid superstition, and united princes and peo- 
ple in the worship of the true God and of his 
Son Jesus Christ, can as readily give effect to 
the exertions of the Missionaries of the Cross, 
who shall be sent to proclaim his message on 
the continent of Africa. But, though such suc- 
cess may not attend their efforts; if in its 
slower advances this attempt bear more of an 
analogy to the other dispensations and works 
of God ; if we are called to imitate the pa- 
tience of the husbandman, who waiteth for the 
precious fruits of the earth, there is no reason 
to despond in regard to the final issue. We 
have enough in past events to admonish us not 
to despise the day of small things. In refer- 
ence to this attempt of the feeling and humane 



COLONIZATION SOCIETY. 29 

in our country, to make some retribution to in- 
jured Africa, by restoring to her her children, 
and accompanying the return with the blessing 
of civilization, and the light of God's truth, I 
would adopt the sentiment of one of her en- 
lightened English advocates, and say : " If by 
the labours of a generation but one book of 
the inestimable volume that reveals a Saviour, 
be transfused into the speech of nations that 
know not God ; — if by the lives and labours, 
and even deaths of those devoted men, who, 
for his name's sake, go forth taking nothing of 
the Gentiles, the sacred leaven be but intro- 
duced ; — if but one of a family and two of a 
city, among the benighted regions of Africa, 
be brought to kiss the Son and do him homage, 
you will not only have to consider your expense 
and your cares well repaid, but you may contem- 
plate, in these beginnings, the elements of a 
future generation that shall rise to call him 
blessed ; you will hail the bright approach of 
that glorious day, when the fulness of the Gen- 
tiles shall come in, and all Israel shall be saved." 
To conclude ; in regard to the plan and opera- 
tions of the Colonization Society, it is an omen 
for good, that they have received the sanction 
of several of the State Legislatures, of some 



30 PLEA FOR THE AMERICAN 

• ' ' — ' 

of the most respectable Ecclesiastical Judica- 
tories, and of other enlightened associations of 
our country ; that they have commended them- 
selves to the regards, and, as far as circum- 
stances would allow, received the support of 
the General Government, and that the friends 
of Colonization have reason to hope, that, 
when further proof of the practicability of this 
benevolent effort shall have procured for it the 
approval and support of a greater number of 
the Patriots, Philanthropists, and Christians of 
our land, the public authorities will afford such 
efficient countenance, protection, and aid, as 
will give facility to the labours of the Society, 
and conduct them to the most glorious termina- 
tion. In the mean time individual assistance 
should not be withheld : private beneficence 
should be enlarged and generous : and, then, I 
am persuaded there will be no want of evidence 
to convince the lover of his country that the 
public good will be promoted, the friend of 
mankind that the interests of humanity will be 
subserved, and the disciple of Jesus that his 
Master's cause will be advanced, by the Ameri- 
can Society for Colonizing the free people of 
colour of the United States. 

Brethren, let an Institution so noble in its 



COLONIZATION SOCIETY. Si 



purposes, so encouraged in its prospects, and 
that will, under the smiles of Providence, be so 
glorious in its results, receive the united sup- 
port of your contributions, your exertions, and 
your prayers. 



s 



503 



A 






<^„ 



-> 







; ^^-V 

* V > 




-S^ 






.^' 




av 



0*0 <^ 








^ ^:^i^^ "V. 



O - G ^ ■* , 













^""^^^ 



> 



^> 



.3- 







v-^^ 



•^^ 













^ . r 



r'^^-^ .0 



o V 









^^ ...o. 






.'^ 



•>^, 




v^ 






v"^ 



* -m^-- "-^^ ,^^* -V.^;'*'. ^' 



\^^ : 






0' 



-^^l* * ^"^ ^ 




v^9 




.0' 



-0?- -^ ■.... ■'». 




> 



V , ^ 












-^^0^ 




0' 



■a? •^ 

V" 9^ * » . o " ,0 








1, yP 



